Is Stephen King’s The Stand finally making it to the big screen? It seems like it might be, as The Hollywood Reporter writes that Doug Liman, the director responsible for films like The Bourne Identity and last year’s Road House remake, is attached to direct a film adaptation of King’s lengthy post-apocalyptic novel.
According to Variety, despite not yet having a script, the studio sees the movie as a priority and is moving forward aggressively to make it happen. Tyler Thompson of Cross Creek Pictures is set to produce the film for Paramount Pictures, having previously collaborated with Liman on 2017’s American Made, starring Tom Cruise.
The Stand has been adapted for television twice, once in 1994 and most recently in 2020, but it has never successfully made it to the big screen, despite directors like George A. Romero expressing interest in adapting the material, a novel that clocks in at just over 1,100 pages. The novel was also adapted as a comic series by Marvel, and it remains to be seen how successful development will be on this newest iteration of the story.
Originally published in 1978, The Stand is King’s version of a Lord of the Rings style epic, which centers on a deadly pandemic and its aftermath, turning humanity into factions of good and evil that clash with each other repeatedly. The novel, in which King’s recurring antagonist Randall Flagg makes his first appearance, was then revised in 1990, with the author adding over four hundred pages of text, shifting the story’s timeline, and adjusting the order of chapters.
This project is just the latest in a long line of King adaptations set to hit screens both big and small in the near future. We just had Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck hit theaters, and he’s also got a Carrie series on the way. There’s also Edgar Wright’s adaptation of The Running Man, which stars Glen Powell and hits theaters this Thanksgiving.
No release date has been announced for Paramount’s The Stand movie. Stay tuned to FANGORIA for more updates.
